Ice gets crowded at Red Wings’ morning skate

DETROIT >> Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard perhaps said it best, “It’s like we’re getting the band back together and heading out on tour.”

Every healthy and injured player on their roster took part in Friday’s morning skate at Joe Louis Arena, prior to the Wings’ game against the Montreal Canadiens.

“Feels like it’s been awhile since we’ve had the whole team out there together,” Howard said. “It’s definitely a positive thing seeing more and more guys out there.”

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Darren Helm (groin) just returned to the lineup Monday, while Jonathan Ericsson (ribs) came back Wednesday.

Howard is one of the injured players, re-injuring his left knee in Monday’s 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

He was scheduled to have it reassessed in a week, but has been on the two days in a row.

“This was the plan we’ve had in place, just progress every day,” Howard said. “Today, it was going down in the butterfly, but in a controlled atmosphere out there and it felt pretty good.”

Howard hopes to return Tuesday in Philadelphia.

“It felt good going down in a controlled setting so it’s doing more treatment, workout more and see how it feels (Saturday),” Howard said. “We knew it wasn’t as serious as it was before. It’s good that it’s coming back this quickly.”

Howard missed eight games in December due to an MCL sprain.

Joakim Andersson (lower-body) hopes to return Sunday at home against Florida.

“I’ll have a full skate (Saturday), but I don’t know when they’ll put me in again,” Andersson said. It’s getting better every day since New York.”

Andersson, who missed his fifth straight game Friday, still would not reveal his injury, but did say it’s the first time he’s suffered it.

Pavel Datsyuk missed his ninth straight game Friday with a lower-body injury. He said earlier in the week that he’d return before for the Olympics.

“I’m just happy to not feel like I’m in the fog anymore,” Franzen said Thursday.

Cory Emmerton (finger) also practiced.

“We have a lot of great players who aren’t in the lineup right now, whenever we can get them back the better,” Patrick Eaves said.

Stephen Weiss (sport hernia) has been on the ice every day this week.

“I’m just going to go slowly, keep progressing, keep cranking it up so I’m ready to go when I get the OK,” Weiss said. “I’m very pleased. I’m really amazed how fast this thing goes. You go from feeling terrible to skating not long after that. I was walking on the treadmill maybe a week to 10 days ago and know I’m on the ice five days in a row.”

Weiss is targeted to return after the Olympic break, Feb. 26 at Montreal.

“It progresses pretty quickly, but the key is to not fool yourself into thinking everything is great,” Weiss said. “There was still some work down in there so you need to take it slow. I’m happy with how it’s going.”

He could resume practicing with the team by next week.

“To be honest it’s way too many players out there for a pre-game skate,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “The goalie’s dying. It’s good to have guys coming back; now they have to push to get their jobs back.”

Weiss had sports hernia surgery on Dec. 23.

Ins and outs

Daniel Alfredsson returned to the lineup and started on a line with Helm and Daniel Cleary.

Alfredsson has missed the last six games with lower-back inflammation.

“We just have to keep him healthy,” Babcock said.

Alfredsson has 31 goals and 74 assists in 89 games played against Montreal in his career.

“It’s always frustrating to be out and now be able to skate like I have and have no issues it feels great actually,” Alfredsson said.

Alfredsson replaced Todd Bertuzzi in the lineup.

“Why don’t we just talk about the guys that are playing,” Babcock said when asked what he needs to see more out of Bertuzzi.

Jakub Kindl and Mikael Samuelsson were also healthy scratches.

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